News

It is our great pleasure to announce that Mariam Diallo-Drame, President of the "Association Femmes Leadership et Développement Durable" (AFLED) of Mali, and WLUML networker, has just received the Medal of Merit, awarded by the Government of Mali.

The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa, Ms Reine Alapini-Gansou, has been informed of the sentence handed down on appeal against human rights defenders Yara Sallam, Sanaa Seif and 21 other co-accused on Sunday, 28 December 2014, in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The Special Rapporteur condemns the sentence which runs completely counter to the principles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter), and other regional and international instruments duly ratified by Egypt.

Shahindokht Molaverdi, the head of women's and family affairs, told the eighth meeting of women's affairs advisors and executives that she feels she is completely blocked from taking any action in her governmental capacity.

On Tuesday 13th January 2015, women’s rights groups, including Southall Black Sisters, One Law for All, Nari Diganta and the Iranian & Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), met with Mark Stobbs, the Law Society’s Director of Legal Policy at the SBS office. Our organisations welcomed the Law Society’s decision to withdraw its guidance on ‘Sharia’ compliant wills that endorsed discrimination against women and children. We also thanked the Law Society for making a public apology. The Law Society showed that it had listened to the voices of BME women’s rights campaigners and other secular organisations that had been alarmed by the original decision.

On the morning of 13 January 2015, Cairo International Airport stopped prominent women human rights defender Esraa Abdel-Fattah from embarking on a flight to Germany, and Ms. Abdel-Fattah was informed that this is a result of a travel ban issued against her by the security administration. Esraa Abdel-Fattah was not notified prior to this morning that there is a travel ban officially issued against her.

Militant group Boko Haram killed between 150 and 2,000 civilians in Baga on 3rd January but Nigerian politicians appear more focused on their election campaigns than on security issues, according to the BBC.

Women Human Rights Defenders, or WHRDs, around the world regularly face threats, violence and attacks on their children and families. A new UN initiative gives visibility and recognition to WHRDs’ work in an important step towards creating a safe environment to allow them to continue their legitimate work.

Faced with unequal power relations at the negotiating table and authoritarian consolidation, a member of the 50-committee explores how feminist voices achieved leverage when drafting the 2014 Egyptian Constitution to include article 11.